


Secrets (And Memories of the Dark)

by apotropaicsymbol



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alien Culture, Developing Relationship, Gen, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Venom POV, Venom Symbiote Loves Eddie Brock, Worldbuilding, but you can also read it platonically, if you would like to read it that way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-28 18:32:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19399960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apotropaicsymbol/pseuds/apotropaicsymbol
Summary: Eddie is low-maintenance. Mostly.Venom is not bothered by this. Mostly.





	Secrets (And Memories of the Dark)

After unfucking his knee joints and making sure those hereditary cataracts don’t form, Venom doesn’t really have to…do much for Eddie. The most they’re asked to do is stuff like doling out the yogurt when Eddie makes an omelet, or grabbing clothes out of the dresser. They’re more into death-defying feats than he is. It’s honestly strange, a symbiosis where their many talents, the strength that could bring down empires…is not _neglected_ , exactly, but far less important to their host than they always thought it would be. Kings would kill and die for such power, and they have. But Eddie just…doesn’t really think about it, about how he could stop serving others _whenever he wanted_ and have them serve him. Make them.

It doesn’t make Venom feel _bad_ (hardly. they are not weak like a human) but…this isn’t how they thought it’d be. At home there were so few glimpses of anything to wish for, to dream of, and this is good but…

Sometimes Eddie drowns in grief. Sometimes Eddie kindles with rage. **What is your problem?**

(“Nothing.”)

More and more, when these moods come, Eddie curls them around his hand, brings them to his mouth. Nuzzles them, their aseptic surface. No pathogens on or in. Venom is clean in a way nothing else will ever be.

His lips are hot and dry.

Humans are unpredictable but _a_ human, in isolation, is not. Eddie’s moods become increasingly decipherable, and the logics underneath start to reveal themselves. Getting up for the alarm is expected but not welcomed. Sunshine is better than rain, and some weather makes Eddie worry about the future. Making it to work on time is sometimes stressful. Work is not bad, especially when the boss isn’t there. True relaxation is when Eddie comes home at the end of the day. Eddie likes it when there are frozen meals in the fridge that he can just heat up for dinner. He likes it more when one of his high school buddies texts him, and when Michael or Jason get the free time for a phone call it’s hard to say who enjoys the oxytocin more. (Actually it is not hard at all. Venom likes it the most. Duh.)

Wash the dishes. Turn off the computer ( **you spend too much time on that anyway** ). Eddie’s internal clock is winding down. He heads to the bathroom, brushes his teeth, fills himself a glass of water. And as he putters around, replaying these little rituals, these preludes to unconsciousness…something happens. Something else winds up.

It is when Eddie crosses the threshold from the hall to his bedroom that Venom identifies it. But it is unexpected enough that it takes a minute to process. By this time Eddie is busily undressing for bed.

Here is another stimulus response. Eddie is about to lie down for the night.

Eddie is scared.

Without asking Venom knows that Eddie will not tell them. This has the same flavor as every other time that he was upset and denied it. Fine. It’s bad enough that humans are ugly and pathetic (and Eddie is the ugliest and most pathetic of them all, although anyone who said that would die) without stripping them of their secrets. Eddie will not tell his symbiote, and he will not ask for comfort and protection. Eddie asks for very little. Eddie wants and does not say it, Eddie feels and tries to hide it. Venom can let Eddie have power over, tower over others and all this thing does is want to make himself small.

Well. Traitor to the species or not, there are still certain _standards_ that Klyntar are expected to uphold. Just because Venom seriously delayed Eternal Doctrine's enactment on Earth doesn’t mean that they’re going to surrender to loserdom. If anything, this new information has just confirmed what they’ve always known: that Eddie is the pussy in this relationship. It’s nothing more than further data on the scope and comprehensiveness of Eddie’s pussihood. Pussification. Point _is_ , Venom actually did pay attention to Phage’s discussions of drawing conclusions from data sets. (Not that the latter is around to appreciate their genius.)

While all of this high-level cogitation has been going on, Eddie has flopped himself into bed and said good night. It’s not unusual for Venom to go quiet from time to time, whether in their own naps or tuning out whenever Earth gets too boring, and so he simply accepted their silence. But the muscles in his neck are still tight, his heart rate elevated.

**Eddie. Edward. Squidward.**

“The fuck do you want, Spongebob?”

**There is something I must tell you.**

“What?” A thought-flash of Venom eating something forbidden.

**If anyone else comes into this room, their spine will hang from the doorknob.  
**

Eddie does that thing where he simultaneously laughs and feels guilty – but more importantly, it works. The stress response dissipates, dials down. “Would it even fit? I mean, wouldn’t it hit the floor?”

**Not to worry, Eddie. We have the carpet.**

“Oh, how could I forget,” Eddie says, and he’s smiling. He moves his fingers slightly, the _let me pet you_ signal, and Venom breaches the skin surface, hyperdivides their cells until they have a hand of their own, linked with his.

-

It’s some time later that Venom wakes up from their own rest. Eddie is deeply asleep. They can see his eyes move behind his lids, feel his lids touch against his eyes, taste the little blooms of chemicals in his blood.

So easy like this, when nobody is judging and nobody is watching, to think thoughts that have been long forbidden. Somehow blowing up the rocket was the easy part – the team is dead but Venom can still hear them, exactly what they would say. In the days of the team there was a plan. (What’s worse? A symbiote without a symbiosis or a planet without a plan?)

In darkness it’s easy to craft some dark coils, in silence it’s easy to silently slink to Eddie’s jaw and feel the pulse thrumming. The vibration of Eddie’s larynx, the pitch and the subtle resonances, moving through subvocalization into soft sighs. Music through a hollow tube, caught and reverberating in the space formed by his cheekbones, his jaw. His chest rises and falls, his tongue floats down to the bottom of his mouth, but apart from Eddie, nothing moves.

Venom curls against their host and doesn’t say: _I know every cell but I want to know more of you. I would kill all your enemies if you would only name them. I can die with your last breath or I can keep you young forever. Knowing that you truly need me makes things so much easier. How many others have made this same choice? When we look up at the stars together, how many deserters swirl inside their hosts and look back?_

_Klyntar are adaptable. What will I become next?_

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading.


End file.
